Summary: Learn from King David how to control your anger

After sharing last week’s message about David and how he successfully fought the temptation to get even with Saul and retaliate against Saul for all the wrong Saul did to him, we all are thinking, "Wow, what a great guy David is. What spiritual maturity he displays. What inner fortitude he has been blessed with."

Well today we are going to start looking at the ugly side of David. True he was described by God as a man after my own heart, yet David had his downside and weak moments.

After David’s encounter with Saul in the cave, David and his band of misfits, people who were described in chapter 22 as people in trouble, in debt, or bitter about life, set up camp in the wilderness of Paran, which was an area where raising sheep was the main industry.

Sheep farming tended to be a dangerous business in those days. Bands of nomadic people would suddenly overrun an area, attack the employees of the sheep farm, steal livestock and assault small villages. So owners of the sheep farms would hire someone to protect their employees and their sheep herd. Sort of like hiring a security company. David was an experienced sheep farmer himself and an experienced military man, so he and his band of men worked to protect a flock of sheep and the shepherds that tended to the sheep that were owned by a man named Nabal.

Nabal was described by the writer of 1 Samuel as a "very rich man, who was harsh and mean." This guy was a ruthless business owner, profit was all he cared about.

According to the customs of that day, at the time the sheep were sheared, it was common for the owner of the animals to set aside a portion of the profit he made and give it to those who had protected the shepherds and the sheep.

David and his men had been faithfully watching out for the flock of Nabal, and when payday arrived David sent his men to collect his fee for protecting the flock.

A problem arose. Nabal was a stingy man and he refused to pay up.

David, of course, became enraged and he gathered his men together, they armed themselves and started journeying to Nabal’s home. David planned to kill Nabal and any of his men who resisted.

Word of this business deal gone sour reached the ears of Nabal’s wife, Abigail. She was described in 1 Sam 25 as sensible and beautiful. When she hears what is going on, she gathers up a bunch of food, as described in verse 18, and sets out to go and meet David.

Verse 21 gives us some insight into what’s going on inside of David right now.

1 Samuel 25:21 David had thought, "I guarded this man’s stuff in the desert for nothing! Not one of his possessions was missing. Yet, he has paid me back with evil when I was good to him. May God punish me if I leave even one of his men alive in the morning."

Long story short, Abigail negotiates with David, calms him down, tells him that she knows her husband is a fool, even calls her husband a worthless person. She gets David to see that killing Nabal would be a black mark on his sterling record.